film

Claudy makes fun of me for watching "film." She says, "Moni likes fiiilm," putting snooty, Brit stress on the word. But of course, I know she watches Entertainment Tonight religiously, and will on occasion be seen watching a "movie" herself, it’s just that I watch "film," and I think she knows there’s a difference.

I don’t want to get too caught up in vernacular, especially pretentious distinctions between this and that, but to me, that word "film" for movies, like "literature" for books, tells you I’m serious. Films are part of my pudding. I don’t go a week without watching at least one. I study humanity through them, and I study topics, too. Something happens on the planet and I wait patiently for a film to emerge to teach me about the complexity of the event, how that event felt, and what really happened. I use film to travel the world, get stretched, and return home with wider eyes. It’s a lifestyle. Nay, it’s a pleasure.

It’s no surprise that I see a lot of shruggable films then. Most of them are in this category. Chop chop cookie cutters. Maybe this one has excellent dialog, another stuns with cinematography, score, art direction, costumes, ooh and how about the sound editing on Bourne Ultimatum (yeah!). Ah and let us all have a moment of silence for each and every Key Grip that ever was. But most of the time, it all comes together and it’s essentially similar to most films that came before. However, inside this library of similarity, every five years of weekly rentals, comes a glittering reel that shoots off the shelves (or out of the little red envelope) and into the player, and it’s like Wonka’s Golden Ticket. Watching it, all the me’s I’ve ever been, all my ages, all the sheit movies I’ve watched, I feel it all at once. I am transported to an unbeknownst place, and I, as a friend said, "forget to breathe." I am handed myself, humanity, god, everything on a 2 hour and forty-eight minute platter of contemplation that I hope will never end. There Will Be Blood is that kind of movie. Nuff said. Get out. Find it. Do it. Hell yes. Oil!

ok, i don’t watch ET religiously. yeah, i watch it enough to call it "ET" but, for instance, i don’t even know if brittany is currently hospitalized… And as far as fiiiilm goes, it’s not that i don’t watch and appreciate. in fact i do, plenty. i just prefer to do this alone. why-oh-why would i want to spend a perfectly good evening with my dear friend moni plopped in front of a glowing screen for 2-3 hrs? i would rather interact, engage, dialog, experience. moni is so awasome, i just don’t want to miss a thing. sorry, aerosmith.

kennedy says: February 27, 20084:52 pm

Where is this library of similarity? I want to go!

monicacway says: February 28, 20088:04 pm

okay, fine fine fine. there’s no difference between film and movies. i lay down my bourgeois flag.